Five Years
by jennh07
Summary: The thing is he didn't mean to meet Rachel, but he's watched her take Broadway by storm and a Tony sits on her shelf. But now that she's 25 and not in an actual relationship, he tells her that her five years are up. So now what?


Don't own Glee. Any mistakes you find are mine though.

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><p>Puck's sitting on the firehouse couch, staring up at the TV while Finn paces around and talks on the phone in hushed tones. Tonight is their night to pick up Chinese and head over to Rachel's apartment when their shift is over. Which happened to be 20 fucking minutes ago and she has the night off from being Christine in <em>Phantom of the Opera<em> on Broadway. How two firemen ended up having standing dates with a Broadway star? Well that's a story for later. What he's more concerned about right now, is why Finn is half yelling at whomever he's on the phone with while his stomach is growling because he _just_ finished up a twenty four hour shift and ready to crash on Rachel's _extremely_ comfortable couch and watch reruns or whatever she has on her DVR that they like to watch. Maybe he rants when he's hungry.

Finn walks over and sits on the couch, rubbing his temples with his fingertips. "I'm not going to Rachel's tonight."

"Um, why the fuck not?" He's not really pissed that Finn isn't going over there, but because it's his turn to pay. Puck doesn't mind the time alone with Rachel though.

"I don't wanna talk about it. But I'll see you later man." He gets up and leaves the station while Puck glares at his back.

"Glad I wasted all this fucking time sitting around**,**" Puck mumbles to himself. He pulls on his jacket over his NYFD shirt and heads out to the Chinese restaurant down the street from their station that also serves the vegan shit that she likes.

Once he's got his key into the lock of her door, then undoing the other four remaining locks (four!) he walks inside and digs around the bag to make sure everything is there. He's starving and it's not like the cook at the fire station decided to work at a gourmet restaurant before coming to cook for firefighters.

"Hey Rach, I think they forgot the soy sauce you like, do you have any left over from last week?" Puck looks up and notices she's curled up in a ball on her couch with the _Wizard of Oz_ playing. She doesn't even look over at him. He's got the food set down on the coffee table and reaches over for the remote, pausing it then sitting on the table across from her. It blocks her vision and she glares at him slightly before pouting as a tear rolls down her cheek. Puck wipes it away with the edge of his thumb. "What's wrong?"

"Finn," she says quietly before she whimpers.

Puck sighs and pushes a strand of her hair behind her ear. Maybe now would be a good time to cover the story of their fucked up little friendship. The thing is, ever since they met _and _for as long as he can remember since that night, Rachel and Finn have been doing this little flirting tango. Yes, he knows what the tango is. He'll never tell how though. Sure Finn and Rachel dated on the side but he could tell that they really just wanted each other. But all their schedules were fucked up. Sometimes Finn wasn't even scheduled with him to work at the station. Honestly, they could have completely different shifts. But that's not important.

The thing is, he didn't even mean to meet Rachel. It was a complete…maybe not a complete accident, but leave it to his mom to sniff out the most _perfect_ Jewish girl in New York City. His mom and sister came to visit him for a week. He even bought them tickets to go to a Broadway show. _Wicked_. By this time, he's been a firefighter for about a year at the nice age of 19. And even then he's getting easily laid in this great city all thanks to the NYFD t-shirts that he would wear around town. Plus he's kind of proud so, you know.

Anyways.

_He goes to meet them out front when the show is supposed to be finished. But of course, they're nowhere to be seen. So he walks inside to find them both talking animatedly to a beautiful woman who has her hair in a pony tail, face with no makeup on, an NYU jacket and jeans on. _

"_Hey ma, you couldn't have used your damn cell phone to tell me you wouldn't be outside? This isn't Lima fucking Ohio woman. There _are_ crazy people here." _

"_Watch your mouth Noah!" His mother glares at him and smiles. "This is Rachel Berry. She was Elphaba in the show." _

"_Uh, who?" He looks at Rachel curiously. _

"_One of the leads." She holds her hand out and he shakes it. He looks down and smirks. _

"_You have really cute hands, did you know that?" She bites her bottom lip, blushing and looks away. His mom squeals a little bit and he hears his sister slap her arm. "Um, are you two ready to go or what?"_

"_We were actually discussing with Rachel that we'd be more than happy to eat dinner with her. She said she had to show us her favorite Italian place in the city while we were visiting." _

"_Ma…she worked all night. I'm sure she's tired. Plus we're supposed to meet Finn." He glances at Rachel. She's wringing her hands in her lap and looking nervously between all of them._

"_I really don't mind. It'd be my pleasure and my roommate is out of town anyways so I don't have anywhere to be." _

_His mother grins at him. "Then call Finn and tell him to come along." _

_At the restaurant, Finn and Puck are staring at the three women talking in front of them. Finn leans over and looks at Puck. "Who is that? She's hot." _

"_Rachel. She's the lead in the show ma and Sarah saw tonight." _

"_But _why_ is she here now?"_

_Puck looks over to his friend and rolls his eyes. "They managed to get her to show us this place." _

Ever since then, they were basically inseparable and the rest is history.

"Can you believe that Carol said that _I'm_ not settling down material? Honestly, what right does she have to say that about me?" Rachel sniffles and sits up, crossing her legs and looks at Puck.

"Want me to beat his face in?" He waggles his eyebrows. "He's my bro but he deserves it. Seriously, why would he even fucking tell you she said that?"

"We have a very open friendship Noah." She dabs a tissue underneath her eyes.

Puck scoffs and opens up the bag, handing her some stir fry and chop sticks. He grabs himself a fork and opens the container of fried rice, dumping some of it over his container of beef and broccoli. Sniffing the food he groans and takes a bite before pointing his fork at Rachel and talking with food in his mouth. "We could have a very open friendship too Rach." He winks.

Her jaw drops and she looks at him disgusted. "Chew before you talk Noah, honestly. Didn't your mother teach you any manners?"

There are a few things he could say about his mom but he's not going to. He doesn't need an epic Berry rant right now. He's still sitting across from her so he taps her knee with the side of his hand and motions for her to keep talking after rolling his eyes to her comment.

"I'm not sure of his reasoning to tell me what she said, but none the less he said it. You know that it's in my plan to eventually settle down and have kids."

"Yeah, 25 years old." He laughs lightly. She's the only girl that he knows who actually has a plan on when she decides to start her family, of course it was only after she won a Tony which happens to be sitting on a shelf in her room. "Consider your five year plan terminated baby. Your birthday was last month." Puck looks at her pointedly.

Rachel rolls her eyes. "Well he doesn't remember that. But you're right. I've successfully done everything that I dreamed of doing and _now_ is the time that I would want to settle down and start a family. I've played Maria, Elphaba, Belle, Velma, got my Tony award with a second nomination on the way, and I'd really love to be a mom." She looks down at her food.

"You'll be a great mom Rach. Everything with Shelby doesn't mean anything."

She smiles gratefully and takes a bite. "Thank you."

They both think of the night when he was at the opening night of _Chicago_ and a woman sat next to him. He thought that she looked familiar but he just ignored it and stared back at the stage with Finn to his right and Rachel's best friend Brittany. After the show, Brittany saw Shelby and freaked out, pulling at Puck's arm. Both he and Finn looked at her like she was crazy until Rachel walked out and gasped.

_Rachel has her head in Brittany's lap, crying while the blonde gently runs her fingers through her dark curly hair. Finn's sitting in the chair next to the couch while Puck runs his hand across her calf that's sitting in his lap. _

"_Why would she even come to my show?" _

"_I don't know sweetie." Brittany's heart breaks as she watches her best friend._

"_Whenever she came to see me in high school, she just wanted a little girl. And it's not like I could pull some Benjamin Button act out of thin air and just become her baby again." _

_Finn looks over at Puck confused, but Puck shakes his head. "Maybe she just wanted to see you. Shelby didn't say anything when you saw her." _

"_Yeah, because I got her the hell out of there Puck. _Before_ she could hurt Rachel again." Brittany glares at him. _

"_I'm just saying. You shouldn't be that fucking upset about it Rach." _

"_Look Rachel," he runs his hand through his hair, "I have to be at work at six. We'll talk later okay?" Finn bends down and kisses her forehead._

_Brittany glances at the clock and sighs. "I have to go too. I'll come over tomorrow okay? Chinese night." She smiles and hugs Rachel tightly before they both disappear out of the apartment. _

_When she sits up, the blanket falls off her knees and onto the floor. She ignores it but crosses her legs and faces Puck. "Do you really think I'm overreacting?"_

"_A bit." Puck smirks and opens his arms so she'll come over to him. _

"_What would you do if it was your dad who came to see you at the fire station?" She feels him tense underneath her. "I'm not trying to be a bitch Noah. I just want an honest answer." _

"_Babe, if my dad came to see me… I guess I would give him a chance to explain. But Rach," he cups her face in his hands, "You gave Shelby a chance and she blew it. That's why I don't think you should be that upset about it." _

"_But it hurts." She whines and pouts her bottom lip out. _

_He runs his thumb over her bottom lip. "She probably realized how amazing you are and how she just blew it all to hell. So tell her to fuck off." _

_Rachel scoffs. "How would I even do that Noah? It's not like she's here. And I am not going to hunt that woman down. No matter how much she wants to try and reconnect or whatever it is that she was trying to do. I'm just not. What she did hurt so bad." _

"_Okay, first off you could have just said she's not here, I can't yell at her." Her shoulders slump over and he sighs. "Just scream it out into the living room. C'mon." Puck nudges her shoulder and grins._

_She looks at him hesitantly before looking around her living room. "Fuck off Shelby." _

"_What the fuck was that?" Puck feels almost insulted that he told her to _yell_ it out in the room and she whispers it. _

"_I did what you told me to do!" Her brown eyes widen as she looks at him._

"_You work on Broadway every night babe. I _know_ you can be loud. So let's try that again." _

"_FUCK OFF SHELBY!" _

_Rachel purses her lips and looks over to him shyly. Giggles erupt from her lips and she covers her mouth laughing. _

"_Feel better baby?"_

_She nods and cuddles into his side. "I do. I'm so glad you're my friend." _

_Puck kisses the side of her head and mumbles 'me too' against her hair. Once her breathing evens out, he carries her to the bed in her room before crashing on the couch. He stares up at the ceiling, wondering what would happen if his dad ever _did_ come back to see him. Scoffing, he turns onto his side and thinks about the woman in the other room until he falls asleep._

"But we've been doing…whatever it is that we've been doing, for long enough. And how could I possibly want to have a relationship with Finn knowing that _that's_ what his mother thinks of me?" Rachel shakes her head and takes a bite. "He should've stood up for me you know?" Her eyes meet his. "If he _really_ wanted to be with me, he would have said I would make an amazing mother and wife."

He shakes the thoughts about Shelby and that night away. "You wouldn't have to worry about that shit if it was my ma. Ya know, if Finn and I were switched around…" Rachel looks at him curiously. He rolls his eyes. "If you gave her a Jewish grandbaby, she wouldn't give a shit when it happened as long as it was before she died. And she fucking adores you or some shit, so a kid would just be a bonus."

"How would a baby be a bonus?" Rachel sets her food aside and leans back on the couch, setting her feet next to Puck's thigh.

Puck puts his empty container on the table and lays down on the couch so that he's facing her. "For as long as I can remember, my ma's been riding my ass about dating a nice Jewish girl." He scoffs. "The Jewish girls in that town were good enough to bang but not to date. But every time she calls she asks about ya."

Moving between his legs, she lays on top of him with her head resting on his chest. It's not the first time they've cuddled before. They both actually like it but they'd never admit it to anyone. "What do you tell her?" Rachel runs her index finger over the logo on his shirt.

"That you and Finnocence are dancing around each other still. Not much to tell babe." He shrugs and runs his hand through her hair. "Ma knows you'll be an amazing wife to the lucky bastard that marries you."

"Oh."

Rachel thinks back to the night she met them both. Finn may have been flirting with her for however many years, but it didn't compete to the way that Puck would look at her. But then she remembers how Puck's mother would talk about what a good man her son has become compared to how he was in high school. That's when she finally gets it. She looks up at him and taps on his chin. His eyes open and he looks down at her.

"She's been rooting for us all along hasn't she?"

Feeling his laughter rumbling underneath her, he finally says. "Just now figured that out?"

"Why didn't you say anything?" Her voice is small.

Puck sighs. "You were obviously pining after Finn. I've stabbed him in the back before, I wasn't about to do it again. Granted five years of watching you two just flirt is pretty fucking exhausting. I was two days away from locking you two inside a room."

"Then how did you deal with it?" Rachel glances up at him confused. "You would constantly bring girls back to your apartment."

"Yeah, and think about what they all had in common." Puck looks away.

She thinks about it for a minute then her eyebrows furrow. "They were all brunette."

He nods and closes his eyes again. "Yep."

"Noah, do you want to go to sleep and we'll finish talking tomorrow? You look really tired."

He may have just ended a 24 hour shift, but he can tell that her talking about all of their screwed up past is helping her decide if she still wants Finn or not. So he's all for her finally making up her mind. "Just keep talking Rach, you're good at it."

Rachel pushes at his chest and sits up. Puck moves so he's resting against the arm of the couch and pulls her towards him again. "Okay, now that you have all the messy details figured out, what do you want?"

"I don't know." Her hands are folded in her lap and he takes one of them into his. "Finn has waited so long to try and make a move. But he became really distant when he told me about his mom earlier. Obviously he doesn't want to see me because he didn't come over tonight. But then there's all this new information I learned about you and your family. It's just so hard to process."

"Rach, it doesn't have to be that hard." He kisses the side of her head and moves his head down so he's whispering in her ear. "Listen to your heart."

And she does. She thinks about how her eyes betrayed her all these years, all the times she would look at Puck and feel butterflies but then feel guilty because she liked Finn. The way she could call Puck's mom if she needed a mother figure to talk to. But he hasn't made a move on her either.

"Noah…" She looks up at him and smiles sadly.

He knew that Finn would win. The damn guy always does, even when his mother thought she wouldn't be a great wife or mother. Puck moves to sit up but Rachel puts her hand against his chest. "Don't Rachel. It's fucking fine if you want to wait for him to make a move in another five years then go ahead. Even more reason for me to go give him an ass whooping."

She sits up and kisses the bottom of his jaw. His breathing quickens so she kisses up until their lips are touching. His hand cups her cheek and he starts to kiss her back harder. Puck moves them so he's hovering over her, his knee between her thighs then kisses down her neck. She whimpers and tilts her head back.

"Rachel?" he mumbles against her neck.

"Hm?"

Puck pulls back, frustrated with himself that he's about to ask this question. "What are you going to do about Finn?" He looks down at her. Her big brown eyes are looking at him curiously.

"It's been us all along. I can see it now." Her hand curls around his neck. "We actually have had a more open friendship. You've made a move by kissing me back when you could've just left. I would like to give us a chance, if you're willing to." Her eyes look away, nervous about what he'll say.

"Fuck yes I do." He moves down and captures her lips again, pulling a moan from Rachel.

She shivers when his hand moves up her side underneath her shirt then grinds against his knee. But then someone knocks on the door, causing Puck to groan and drop his forehead to her shoulder while kissing her collarbone.

"Ignore it baby." He tries not to complain when she stops moving against his knee.

"What if it's someone important?"

He looks over at the clock on her DVR then down at her with an eyebrow raised. "Rach, it's nearly eleven at night. Who the _fuck_ could be coming here?"

"_Hey guys? Can you like open the door? I need to talk to you Rachel._"

Fucking Finn. Puck stands up and pulls her up with him. "I'm going to go lay on your bed. Let me know when you get rid of him." He rubs the heel of his hand over his hard on while moving away from her tight body. _Fuck his life_.

Rachel watches as he disappears down the hall to her bedroom. She sighs and looks to her front door then walks over to it slowly then pulls it open. "Hello Finn." She smiles tightly and walks back over to the couch.

"Look, I wanted to talk to you about our phone call earlier."

"What about it?" She doesn't look directly at him then places the empty cartons back into the takeout bag.

"I'm really sorry. All of that was just…stress I guess, since we're not getting younger. My mom loves you and she's just kind of upset that we aren't together. But maybe now is the time to take a break from Broadway. I mean, you've done a lot of roles right?" She blinks owlishly at him. _He really isn't sure?_ Finn scratches the side of his head, a little uncomfortable with how she's staring at him. "Um, anyways. Maybe now would be a good time for us to, you know." He shrugs and gives her a lopsided smile.

"You want me to take a break from Broadway so we could be together?" Rachel really hopes she heard him wrong.

"Well yeah, you're 25. Isn't that what you wanted?" He looks at her curiously.

Puck's sitting against her door frame, listening to their conversation. He's nosey, so what? But he really can't believe what he just heard his best friend say. Puck clenches his fist and tips his head back, breathing deeply.

"Finn, what I wanted when I turned 25 was to look into settling down and having a family. But that didn't mean that I wanted to give up Broadway at the same time. But if that's what you think that I have wanted all along _on top_ of how your mother doesn't think I'm good settling down material then we shouldn't have a relationship."

"It's Puck." He looks down at his hands.

Rachel freezes and stares at him. "What?"

Puck's stomach drops.

"His mom loves you and she's been trying to get you two together since that first night that we all met. I've seen the way he looks at you too. And I think that I would be fine if you want to give it go with him." He looks up at her and smiles sadly. "I've never seen him act like that towards anyone else." Finn laughs lightly. "And he probably wouldn't have made you wait so long like I did. I'm sorry Rachel."

"What for?"

"Not making a move sooner, figuring out what I wanted. I guess I sort of always waited to see if he would make a move on you." He shrugs. "But we can still be friends though right?"

"There's no point in acting like this is a breakup Finn, we were never even dating." She giggles and hugs him.

"Well I better get back home." Finn shoves his hands into his pockets. "I'll talk to you later though."

Rachel nods and walks him to the door. "Goodnight Finn."

Walking down the hallway, she wonders just how much Puck might have heard from their conversation. But she finds him leaning against the door frame with his jaw tense and his eyes closed. She straddles his lap and kisses his chin.

"Noah." His hands find her hips but he doesn't open his eyes. "How much did you hear?"

"All of it."

Rachel leans over and rests her head in the crook of his neck. "And?"

Puck sighs. "I didn't think I was making it obvious that I wanted you. I mean, if Finn could see it then the entire fucking world could."

"I didn't."

"You were stuck in your Finn bubble baby." His hand rubs circles onto her lower back.

"But now I'm not." She says coyly. He hums his agreement and leans down to kiss her. And just like before, he moves them so he's hovering over her. Her hands pull at the hem of his shirt. "Noah, it's been too long."

He looks down at her, then he gets it. Puck pulls his shirt off and captures her lips again. His hands find their way underneath her tank topand he tickles his fingers along her ribs, causing her to laugh and squirm against him before he whips it up and over her head, exposing her chest to him. He growls because he wasn't expecting her to be braless and she's just fucking _perfect_.

Rachel can see his eyes clouding over with lust as he stares at her breasts and she just wants him to do something already instead of just staring at her. So she grabs his hands and places them on her small but perky mounds and moans when he squeezes them and plucks her nipples. When he flicks one with his tongue she gasps but it quickly turns into a moan when her hips jerk against his and she can feel his hard length between her thighs and a wave of warmth just floods her core and she finds herself wanting this man like she's never wanted any other. She briefly thinks about how Finn would give her butterflies but with Noah it's more like touching an active electric fence. He just ignites her entire body with a single touch and she just wants more.

Wrenching his mouth away from her breast, where she realizes he's currently trying to give her a hickey, she kisses him roughly and then whispers against his lips, "The bed, Noah. Take me to the bed."

Right now he can't deny this woman in his arms anything, so he situates his legs beneath himself while getting a firm hold of her small body and pushes up off the floor before walking them over to the bed where he falls on top of her. Puck loves the way she feels beneath him as she rolls her hips up into him. He swears he can feel her wet heat against his stomach, even through their layers of clothing. "Fuck Baby, I want you so bad," he says as he trails his hands over her body.

She scratches her nails down his chest and lets her fingers tease along the waist band of his jeans and even undoes the button before looking up at him through hooded eyes. "Then take me, Noah. Make me yours."

He growls at her words and places his hands on her hips, gathering the fabric there in his grip. He notices that they're some sort of female boxer style shorts and he lets himself wonder what she would look like in a pair of his boxers before smirking because he remembered that he's not wearing any today. Dragging his eyes up her body, he notices the slight shudder that races through her lithe frame and he asks, "You sure?"

When she nods, he whips the fabric (panties and all) down her legs and groans loudly at the sight of her tan supple naked skin. "You're so gorgeous, Rachel," he tells her as he runs his hands up her legs and follows it with kisses to her inner thighs. "I wanna taste you," he says before licking a long slow stripe up her center causing her to moan loudly.

Rachel can't believe that he's so good at this. She's never had anyone bring her to the point of cumming without pushing her over so many times before and it's driving her insane. She feels her desperation grow with each new lick and flick of his tongue on her clit before she feels him push two fingers inside her and curl upwards, causing her back to arch up off the bed as she finally snaps and her hips thrust up against his face and she cries out her release.

"Noah, I need you," she says lowly and he loves how that sounds so he quickly sheds the remainder of his clothing and rolls a condom down his length before placing the tip of his cock at her wet and warm entrance and then sliding into the hilt in one thrust. "Oh God!" she cries out because she's never felt so full in her life.

Puck groans at how amazing she feels around him and he tells her so. If he felt like growing a vagina (which seeing as how much he enjoys sinking his cock into a woman's tight pussy, that's never gonna happen) he would let himself think about how it feels right being here with her right now in this moment. That it's like she was meant for him. Instead he just slowly drags his hips backwards before snapping his hips against her sharply, making her gasp.

He fucking loves how vocal she is and how she isn't afraid to tell him what she wants, whether it be harder, faster, slower or, "Oh God, Noah! Right there! Right there!" When he asks if she's close and she moans yes, he slips his hand between them and rubs his thumb alongside her clit until her walls are clamping down hard on him and she screams his name in her release, dragging him over the edge with her.

Afterwards when they're laying on her bed, tired, sweaty and trying to catch their breath, Rachel turns her head to look at him and asks, "So are we really doing this? Are we giving us a chance?"

He turns on his side so that he's facing her and places his hand on her hip and rubs his thumb in small circles. "I've just been waiting on you, Babe."

She smiles at him and bites her lip before snuggling up to his muscled chest. "I'm sorry it's taken me so long. There's so much wasted time to make up for." Rachel places a kiss to the column of his throat and then giggles when she feels him hardening against her thigh. She tilts her head back and looks up at him. "You're already ready to go again?"

Puck rolls onto his back and settles her on top of him as he says, "I'll always be ready to go with you." And just in case she didn't believe that he meant it, he reiterated his point when he slipped inside her, holding her hips firmly against his as he looked her in the eyes and said, "Always."

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><p><strong>First off, many many many thanks to Shadowkitty22 for being my beta <strong>_**and**_** writing that smut scene along with the amazing ending. Seriously, amazing. Along with helping me come up with the summary as well. You are just all sorts of wonderful! ** Any mistakes you may find in the story are after she read through it and I made changes.

And the prompt was from my 200th reviewer itskindafuntodotheimpossible. It was: something where Finn does something to Rachel and Puck finds out and goes to defend her honor but she stops him and they talk and end up kissing. –I hope you like it!

Also, to the person who wanted the Kelly Clarkson/Jason Aldean song prompt, PM me so I can send it to ya :)


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